Policing Reform Essential to Address Mass Incarceration

Reforming
policing practices is essential to addressing mass incarceration in the U.S.,
according to a Vera Institute of Justice report published on Aug. 12.

Beginning in
the late 1990s, there was a significant increase in the number of adults with
an arrest record by age 23.

By 2008, around
33% of all young adults (and almost 50% of black young adults) had been
arrested – representing a 36% increase in likelihood over their parents’
generation.

Total arrests
have historically always been higher than total jail admissions – until 2016
when they were almost identical.

There were 70
jail admissions per 100 arrests in 1994, a figure that rose to 99 out of 100 by
2016.

“While not all
jail admissions stem from arrests – people suspected of violations of probation
or parole can end up in jail too, for example – the growth in admissions as
crime and arrest rates have fallen to lows not experienced since 1970 and 1980,
respectively, strongly suggests that between then and now, police enforcement
has become an expressway to jail,” the report said.

Such trends are
the result, in part, from an increasing number of incidents to which police are
responding “that might not constitute true public safety emergencies” and for
which “they are neither trained nor equipped to properly handle.”

This includes
homelessness, as well as mental health and substance abuse issues, which the
report suggested are best handled through means other than arrest, citation,
incarceration or combination of the three.

A growing
number of police departments are emphasizing alternatives to arrest – giving a
warning, issuing a citation, redirecting the case to another entity, such as
fire or emergency medical personnel, referring the person to community-based
treatment or letting the person go without any action.

A 2016 survey
found that 39% of larger police departments – those with 500 or more officers –
had such diversion programs in place designed for low-risk individuals
encountered by police, but that number drops to 25% of departments with 50 or
fewer officers and 10% of departments with 10 or fewer officers.

Despite this
trend, around 80% of annual arrests are for low-level offenses, which suggest “that
policing practices currently tend toward punitive approaches … in ways that are
often not necessary to achieve public safety.”

In 2017,
continuing a decades-long trend, less than 5% of arrests were for serious
violent crimes.

Communities of
color have been disproportionately impacted, with persons of color twice as
likely as whites to be arrested.

Blacks accounted
for 27% of all arrests in 2016 (while representing only 13% of the total
population), were 2.39 times as likely to be arrested on drug abuse violations
as whites in 2014 (despite research indicating drug usage at the same rates),
and were three times as likely as whites to be arrested for disorderly conduct
from 1980 through 2014.

While some data
points indicate an increased use of citation instead of arrest, the report noted
this can ultimately lead to an arrest if the person has unaddressed needs
(mental illness or substance abuse, for example) that prevent them from attending
a required court date for their citation.

“To chart a new
course in American policing, police should use arrest sparingly, intentionally
and transparently,” the report said, while emphasizing that “the problems that
have led to mass enforcement are, to some extent, the result of societal issues
that have been laid at the feet of police but are not theirs alone to solve.”

The full report
is available here. A summary fact sheet is available here.